I have an old (2008 MC X2) cover (has a rip in it so no longer good as a boat cover) a buddy gave to me but it has been sitting out back in the shed and is really really gross. I was curious if I could just take it to a laundrymat and throw it in one of the machines. Here is what I would like to do with it and maybe someone can shed some light on whether its possible and what it would take to get it done:

I would like to get it cleaned up and cut it up to make a platform cover and covers for my tower speakers. I am on my 2nd pair of tower speakers due to the sun dry rotting out the first pair. I know I could just get speaker sox and be done with it but I figure why spend the money if I can fabricate covers out of this old cover.

Yes you can put a boat cover in a washing machine. I did my 2008 Malibu VLX cover (non sunbrella) on hand wash setting in my LG front load washer last spring. Put it on the boat to dry, then sprayed it down with waterproofing spray (cover off the boat). The waterproofing is already worn off though and i need to do another coat for this season.

Depending on the severity of the tear in the cover, I would price out an upholstery shop to stitch up the torn cover, wash it up, sell it on craigslist and buy speaker sox and a stand alone platform cover. I just dont see how you could piece together boat cover material to make speaker covers. Platform would be doable, but would require someone with sewing machine experience or $ to have a shop do it.

Once I washed an old down sleeping bag at the laundromat, after it was washed I saw that it had begun to come apart soooo I figured I'd try to dry it and see if I could "save' it- well when I came back 45 minutes later it looked like it was snowing in the parking lot, down feathers floating everywhere from the roof dryer vent, I went in pulled the trash can over loaded it in and got the heck outa there.

Bahhhhhhh. Turns out the rip was a lot bigger than I remember so it is not worth it to try to repair so I broke down and bought 2 pair of speaker sox. I still wanna try to make a swim deck cover out of the old cover though. I am thinking to trace out the swim deck and add a couple inches for seams to run a bungee through. Anyone have any thoughts on this.